Dreamland
by morninwarri0r
Summary: [One-shot] She was just a girl, casually passing by Heaven every night in her sleep.


Spirited Away One-shot: Dreamland

**Dedicated to my readers in this archive who have been supporting me throughout my journey as a writer since I began writing two years ago in this archive.**

* * *

_Chihiro stepped into the meadow with the gentle breeze as her guide. With every step she took, there were wild flowers and soft grass there to cushion her feet. The air smelled sweet; the aroma of roses and lilies drifted in the air lightly and the sweet fragrance tickled her nostrils. The girl felt her lips stretch into a smile as her gaze rested on the peach colored sky. Faint streaks of clouds were brushed into the distant horizon, and she spotted the vague outlines of birds soaring high up in the limitless sky._

_She walked further, her legs carrying her towards a large oak tree that stood serenely by a calm river just a couple of meters away from her. Something told her he was there waiting._

_She arrived at the roots of the tall tree, but to her dismay, there was no one around. Maybe he was somewhere else? She walked up to the river and looked down at her reflection in the crystal clear waters. There were little pebbles of varying colors lying at the bottom of the shallow river. A smile touched her lips at the sight of several little fish swimming past._

_She stared at the little creatures in wonder for a while, until she heard some shuffling behind her and then she realized that her reflection wasn't alone anymore. _

"_How'd you know I'd be here?" the man asked in an amused tone. _

_She shrugged. "I had a feeling. It was pretty obvious though."_

"_You're the one who said you didn't like playing hide-and-seek."_

"_Yeah, I like it when you're not scaring the lights out of me all the time."_

"_But you know, I haven't heard you scream in a long while," he chuckled, moving closer to her. He snaked his arms around her waist and rested his head on hers. She made no move to turn around. She watched their reflections in the river and grinned when she saw his cheeky smile. "I missed you," he murmured._

"_It's only been a day," she laughed. "And sorry, I've been a little more busy with homework lately. Finals are coming and I need to study."_

"_You still need your rest."_

"_I rest a lot more compared to my friends, you know," she pointed out. "But sometimes I wish I could have more time here… Time just seems to pass so quickly."_

"_I feel the same, but I understand. I guess it's just something we will have to live with for as long as I am unable to physically meet you again."_

"_You never told me why."_

"_It's a reason that I myself don't know." _

"_I see…"_

"_Well, what do you want to do today?"_

"_I don't have much time here. I set my alarm to wake me up in fifteen minutes because I still have work to do."_

"_But you'll be back tonight, yes?"_

"_Of course," she smiled. "I'll be back."_

"_Well then, I think our time is almost up. So I'll leave you with this before you leave." He let go of her and turned her around before leaning in and gently planting a tender kiss on her forehead. "Good luck with your duties. I'll see you soon." _

"_Don't miss me too much when I'm gone," she giggled._

_And then, the world around her faded away_.

Chihiro woke up with a start to the beeping of her alarm. Groggily, she reached an arm over and made a slip-shod attempt to turn it off by whacking it. After three misses, she managed to turn it off and she lay in bed for a moment more before swinging the covers off of her and standing up. She stretched a bit before heading to her study table. Stacks of notes were piled on it, along with her pens and highlighters strewn here and there in random corners.

Chihiro felt dread rise in her chest when her gaze fell on the readings that she had been looking at earlier before deciding a power nap would help her to concentrate better. Statistics and numbers had never been her sort of thing. To be honest, Chihiro felt that her brain could explode from the overloading of information.

A knock came on the door, then her door creaked open as her mother peered in. "Chihiro, do you need me to make you some warm milk? Wow, you look tired."

"Just woke up from a power nap," the woman replied. "How about some coffee?"

"If you drink it so late, you won't be able to sleep later. I think I'll just get warm milk for you, okay?"

"Okay. Thanks, Mom."

"No problem. Just don't stress yourself out too much."

"What makes you think I'm stressing out? You're the one always complaining about my extravagant sleeping habits."

"That's true. Then if you're not that tired, why don't you get that warm milk by yourself?"

Chihiro pressed her palms together and pouted. "Please, Mom?"

Her mother only shook her head in response with a smile on her face before leaving.

Chihiro grinned triumphantly to herself as she walked towards her desk and plopped down on her cushioned wheeled chair. She spun it around, sitting in it limply as she stared blankly into space. Humming to herself, she allowed her mind to drift briefly to the man from before. Already she could feel a small ache in her chest; she longed to see him again. Time was always too short in her dreams.

But no, he wasn't just a figment of her imagination. She was sure of it.

After leaving the Spirit World, Haku practically disappeared. He never showed a sign of crossing over to meet her again, nor was there an opportunity for her to return to the Spirit World. She had returned to the same place where she had entered the Spirit Realm after getting sick and tired of waiting for him, but all that met her was a moss-covered wall.

It was as if everything had just been a dream.

She would have thought just that, if it weren't for the strange purple hair tie that she remembered was given to her by a certain kind, old witch she met before, and her strong gut feeling that the vague memories in her head weren't conjured up by her brain.

And just like that, three years passed without an indication of Haku's presence or existence, but then one night, everything changed.

That night, Chihiro had gone for a hot bath after club activities ended at eight in the evening. Her mind had been blank—she had been too tired to think about anything else other than how soft and fluffy her bed was—and so immediately after showering, without bothering to head down for dinner, she had immediately stalked into the bedroom, switched off the lights, and plopped onto the bed. With her wet hair stuck to her face and moisture from her wet towel seeping into her pajamas, she had conked out almost instantly.

Correction, her _body _did, but not her mind.

Chihiro had no idea how or when she arrived at that place. All she knew was that he was there, and they could finally meet once more, at the same place they first met.

And that was enough for her.

Ever since then, every night without fail, Chihiro would enter the Spirit Realm through her dreams, and every night without fail, she would meet him.

They never ran out of things to talk about or things to do, because every time she seemed to want a change, the next time she came, he would change the setting of her dream. Jungles, piers, modern cities, her house, you name anything, and he could bring you there.

Chihiro had shared this with her close friend who would never stop teasing her about getting a boyfriend, thinking that she would receive due support in her relationship.

She would have preferred it if her friend had just told her an outright "no", but instead, she received a worse reply: _"Chi, I think he's just a figment of your imagination. I mean, you can't possibly think he's real, right? You've only met in your dreams!"_

But Chihiro stubbornly held on to the belief that he was real. Having her parents turned into pigs hadn't been just a dream; it had been a living nightmare. Even if she couldn't remember most of the details—most of it was rather fuzzy—she clearly remembered the name and the face of the man who had saved her from it all.

And the promise he made her was still vivid in her mind: "_We'll meet again sometime… I promise._"

Perhaps when he said that, it didn't necessarily point to a physical reunion, but Chihiro didn't mind. At least she got to see him again.

* * *

"_Finals are officially over!" Chihiro exclaimed and leaned back against Haku's broad chest in contentment. _

_He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her. "I'm glad. This means we'll have more time together, yes?"_

"_Yeah, it does." They were currently sitting atop a hill, which overlooked meadows and plains and winding rivers, though with the lack of light, it was hard to make out anything but vague outlines and shapes of the mountains standing in the far distance. All they could see was the shimmery blanket of night in the sky, with the diamonds resting above shining little light down on them. _

"_Beautiful, aren't they?" Haku murmured as he rested his chin on her head. _

"_I could sit here all night and watch them," Chihiro replied. "They're so pretty. I wish I could go right up there and pluck one out of the sky."_

"_And very conveniently, you have a dragon who can fly right next to you."_

_She giggled. "Don't be silly, Haku. The stars are too high up there. We'll never reach them."_

"_We could always try."_

"_It's impossible. Stars are in space, and we can't possibly go there."_

"_What is 'space'?" he asked. _

"_It's a place above the sky that we see now."_

"_Is it very big?"_

"_It's boundless. There's no end to it."_

"_Do you suppose Heaven is up there?"_

"_Hmm… I don't think so. To be honest, I think Dreamland is Heaven itself." She had dubbed this strange place 'Dreamland' long ago, since she could only come in her sleep._

_He chuckled. "And I suppose I'm an angel living here."_

"_Yeah, you're an angel. One who can fly even without wings," she grinned._

"_Then what does that make you?" he asked._

_She thought about it for a moment. "I guess I'm just a passer-by. Just casually passing by Heaven every night in my sleep."_

"_A passer-by loving an angel? Strange, don't you think?"_

"_Well, strange things happen in Heaven all the time." _

"_Indeed, they do. Strangest of all is the fact that you can enter. Perhaps you're an angel without knowing it?"_

_She turned her head around and giggled at the sight of his playful smirk. "I could never be an angel. I don't have wings."_

"_I can change that." Chihiro felt his arms pull away from her and the man's bare feet shuffled behind her as he stood up. She turned around, not knowing what to expect. _

"_Get on," the mighty dragon seemed to say. He didn't need to say it twice. He lifted one of his legs, allowing her to step on it so that he could hoist her up on his back smoothly. Once she was atop his back and holding on to his horns securely, he began to move forward and climbed up into the sky, drawing closer to the stars above._

* * *

Chihiro shuffled into the kitchen while rubbing her eyes. "Morning Mom, morning Dad," she yawned.

Akio, who was reading newspapers on the couch, peered over at his daughter with a small frown. "You look terrible. Didn't sleep well?"

"Yeah…"

"But you've been sleeping so much after finals ended," Yukio said from the kitchen. "Eight hours of sleep every night, even naps! Are you falling sick?"

Chihiro sat down at the dining table and propped her chin up on her elbows. "I'm fine…"

"What's the matter, kiddo?" Akio had put down his papers and walked over to sit next to her. "Got something on your mind? Are you worried about your results? They don't get released so early."

She only huffed, not even bothering to tell him off for calling her a 'kiddo'. "It's not that... I'm fine, really. Nothing's bothering me at all."

"Uh-huh," he replied, clearly unconvinced. "Need me to bring you to the doctor's?"

"No thanks, I'm perfectly fine… I'll be going back to sleep now."

"Already?" Yuko shot a disapproving glance in her direction as she came out with two plates of pancakes drizzled with maple syrup. "It's already one in the afternoon and you just woke up, for goodness' sake!"

"It's a Saturday. I think I have the time to spare to catch up on my rest," was all the woman said before trudging back into her bedroom.

Chihiro closed the door behind her, muffling the disapproving comments from her parents and then she promptly jumped onto the bed, burying her face in the pillow. "What's going on?" she muttered to herself in angst. "Damn it, this isn't funny, Haku."

She closed her eyes again, sighing and trying her best to fall asleep again. Truth be told, her body really didn't need any more sleep; it was fully awake. But she had to go back to that place and find him.

For weeks, she hadn't been able to meet Haku, for some kind of twisted reason. Chihiro had even resorted to taking sleeping pills just so she could try to enter that place again.

But each time she closed her eyes, she only saw darkness.

It was as if he had just disappeared altogether.

Like everything had just been… a dream.

* * *

The brunette took her books up and stuffed them into her bag pack. Slinging it over her shoulder, she sighed and made her way out of the lecture hall. "Chi, do you want a lift?" a friend of hers called while waving to get her attention.

"No thanks," she replied with a smile. Then she was gone. The woman quietly made her way out of the dark, quiet campus. Not wanting to have her friends catch up to her, she walked briskly out by the front gate and walked down the same road she always took back home.

Looking up at the dark blanket of night, she felt tears prick her eyes at the sight of nothingness. It was empty, like a void.

"You promised," she murmured shakily. "You can't just up and leave like that, not when you promised me…"

She fingered the purple hair tie on her wrist. It was not her imagination; it hadn't been just a dream. Everything they had gone through together, they were all real. Chihiro felt a familiar ache rise up in her chest as something caught in her throat. Had he left because she wasn't good enough? Or was it because she was no longer qualified to stay there?

She shook her head. No. She was just a passer-by; she had always been one.

She was just a girl passing by Heaven.

Just then, a loud, blaring horn snapped her out of her thoughts. She turned to her right, and only saw a bright, glaring light fill her entire line of sight.

And then, darkness.

* * *

_When she woke up next, she found herself lying in a bed of flowers, wearing a white dress. The sun was shining radiantly up in the azure sky filled with fluffy white clouds. Chihiro sat up, looking around. "Where am I?" she asked, wondering if there was someone around._

"_So you finally woke up, sleeping beauty." _

_Chihiro froze at the sound of that voice behind her. As he stepped forward to where she could see him, moisture gathered in her eyes. "I knew it wasn't just a dream," she whispered. _

"_No, it wasn't." He reached a hand out to her and helped her up. "It was never a dream, and besides, you're here now, and that's all that matters."_

"_Yes, that's all that matters," she smiled, before burying her face in the crook of his neck. "I've missed you so much," she whispered._

"_I've missed you too."_

"_Why did you suddenly leave?" she asked._

"_I didn't leave; you did, Chihiro."_

"_Me?" _

"_You were just a passer-by, were you not? Just a girl passing by Heaven."_

"_But I found my way back here."_

"_And you did very well," he answered, stroking her hair. "Welcome home."_

"_I'm back," she said with a smile._

* * *

The doctor sighed and turned to face Yuko and Akio. The man had to support his wife, since she seemed like she would collapse at any moment. "I'm sorry, we've done our best. Her life is out of danger, and her condition isn't very stable yet. We'll have to keep her under observation for this week before we can come to any conclusions. But for now, she's in a coma."

"Will she ever wake up, doctor?" Yuko asked with pleading eyes. She looked towards her precious baby, all bandaged up and hooked to different tubes that were connected to machines, and felt her heart shatter yet again.

"Unfortunately, we can't tell. All we can do now and pray and hope for the best… I'm very sorry. Mr. and Mrs. Ogino. If you'll excuse me, I'll give you some time with her." Then the doctor and the two nurses exited the room.

"Chihiro, oh Chihiro... my poor baby," Yuko sobbed. Her legs could no longer support her weight and she buckled into the chair by the bed where their daughter was sleeping.

"Hey kiddo, this isn't funny, you keep sleeping, it's time to wake up," Akio urged while trying to hold his tears back. "You can sleep for a while now, but you gotta wake up soon, don't keep us old folks waiting, alright?"

Outside the room, a certain man was watching all of this with glossy dark green orbs.

* * *

"_Where are we going?" Chihiro laughed as she let Haku pull her along with him._

"_You'll know when you see it. We're getting close." _

_The woman stared straight ahead, trying to make out where they were going, though it was a little fuzzy, but when their destination was a fair distance away, Chihiro stopped in her tracks. Her lips were slightly parted as she stared at that familiar gate in awe._

"_I see you still remember this place," he grinned._

"_I never thought I'd see it again," she replied with teary eyes, "Every time I came back it was just a wall. I could never go back."_

_Haku stepped towards her and placed his hands on her shoulders, gazing at her earnestly in the eye. "Come with me. You can stay here with me forever."_

_He led her forward, but she stopped in her tracks. The man turned to look at her questioningly. "But, doesn't that mean I'll have to sleep forever?" she asked._

"_Do you want to wake up?" he returned._

_She stared at his outstretched hand for a while, unsure of how to answer him. "I don't, but I don't want to stay forever without my family either."_

"_It's a choice you must make, Chihiro. If you choose to wake up, you'll never see me again."_

"_What? Why?" _

"_You're a passer-by," he replied, "And passers-by can't stay very long."_

* * *

He stepped into the now empty room, carefully closing the door behind him. "Chihiro…" he murmured, with pain in his voice. He drew nearer to the bed and saw the sleeping face of the woman illuminated by the pearlescent moonlight streaming in from the window.

Tentatively, he brushed his fingers on her cheek. She didn't move. Not one bit. "Chihiro," he called once more, holding her hand in his. "It's me, Haku." He let out a shaky breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. "This wasn't how I envisioned our reunion to be, honestly. I guess I'm too late. But I had to keep my promise to you no matter what… Sorry, but it was rather difficult to find a crack in the closed Gate.

"Can you hear me? Even if you can't, allow me to say some things. It's… been a while since we last talked. At times I still cannot bring myself to believe that a decade has already passed us by… Time passes much too quickly. How has life been for you? I understand that you're in university now. Is it tough working as a student?"

Silence was his only answer.

Haku looked out the window to find the moon quietly standing outside. "You know, the others back in the Spirit Realm miss you very much. Lin and Kamaji often reminisce the times they shared with you in the bathhouse, and Zeniba, Boh and No-Face share the same sentiments. Even Yubaba and the other workers in the bathhouse do.

"I was actually thinking of bringing you back for a visit too, and show you more beautiful places in the Spirit Realm. I know you'll love it," he smiled. "But for that to happen, you'll have to wake up first." Haku closed his eyes and rested his forehead against hers. He could feel her breathing, but it was so, so faint and weak. "I'm sorry for making you wait all this time. So wake up, and allow me to make it up to you for every moment you had to wait for me," he murmured.

Gazing down at her peaceful face, he felt a growing dull ache in his chest. She was so beautiful, but she had turned out differently from what he had imagined. Her face had thinned a fair bit, she had grown much taller and her hair was also let down, neatly resting just a little over her shoulders. She had definitely changed a lot physically. Had that ten-year-old changed as well? That brilliant smile of the girl he met ten years ago surfaced in his mind, bringing an identical smile to his face.

"I never really got around to thanking you for something else, other than giving me back my name." Trailing his fingers down her cheek, they came to rest at her lips. "Thanks for teaching me to smile."

Just as those words left his lips though, he suddenly sensed her body temperature drastically dropping. "Chihiro?" Alarmed, he stood up quickly and checked her pulse. Something was wrong, very wrong.

And he was losing her fast.

"Chihiro, what's wrong? Stay with me, come on!" He hit the emergency button with his fist quickly. "Just hang in there until the doctors come, please!"

It was no use. Her body was getting weaker by the second and in his heart, he knew that it was too late.

"Please," Haku begged, gripping on to her hand tightly. Tears fell from his eyes onto her closed lids. "Give me one more chance to make it up to you. Just open your eyes and let me fulfill my promise, please!"

The beeping sound began to escalate.

And then as quickly as it rose, it fell.

Soon, a monotonous beep was all that filled the room.

* * *

"_I want to be with you forever," Chihiro said finally, placing her hand in his. _

"_We'll go on another adventure past this gate, yes?" he replied with a chuckle._

"_Yeah. It'll just be you and I, having an eternal adventure here in Heaven. And it's not going to just be a dream anymore." _

"_Two angels together in Heaven, forever."_

"_Forever."_

* * *

Haku pressed his lips against the now cold ones of the woman, and rested a hand over her forehead. "Sweet dreams, my dear. Someday we'll meet again, if fate allows. I promise."

And with that, he left, without turning back, just as she had.

* * *

A/N: Oooohhh I have no idea what to make of this one-shot. ): All I can say is I tried my best... sigh. ): Anyways, this is my (kind of late) Christmas gift to all you amazing readers, and I do hope to see you again sometime in the future, if I ever get back to writing Spirited Away fan fictions again. (: And before you leave, if you've got time to spare, leave a review to tell me what you thought about this one-shot? (: Thank you and have a blessed (late) Christmas!


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